Allan Crow

As the audience poured out of the Playhouse on Thursday, it was fascinating to lug into the many, many conversations.

‘‘How did he do that bit where ...’’

‘‘But that’s not possible...’’

‘‘How could he have known ...’’

You find yourself speaking sentence consisting of just one word each to try to explain his show.

Mesmerising. Incredible. Baffling. Amazing. Breath-taking.

Truth is you can’t explain the inexplicable - and Brown, the absolute master showman, bids you goodnight without so much as a hint of how does it, but he leaves you with a tip of his hat and a smile which seems to say ‘’go on, see if you can figure it out...’’

His 2015 show ‘Miracle’ has a simple premise.

We can all control our own thoughts and actions - everything else, is beyond our remit and we shouldn’t woprry about it.

To volunteers taking part in his show, he tells them time and again they have free choice - what words to say or write, or items to choose.

Except ... they don’t.

Brown stir fries your senses with delicious humour, wicked misdirection and a sense of pace and adrenalin and which leave you wondering just how he pulls off feat after feat all of which defy logic.

You simply cannot do anything other than marvel at his skills working with an audience through a series of initiatives which build perfectly to a second half set piece with is simply spellbinding; a heart-in-the-mouth, edge of the seat rollercoaster that is Brown at his very very best. It’s a tour de force.

Your brain tells you what he is doing is impossible. Your eyes witness something else indeed.

You find yourself pulled into the presentation as all the strands come together in a remarkable and incredibly clever finale.

No-one does what Brown does - many try, but his skill levels are so great when it comes to magic and memory, misdirection, hypnosis and body language he occupies a different league altogether.

Regular Brown fans may recognise some individual elements of this show, but ‘Miracle’ delivers a mighty jaw-dropping ‘wow’ factor.

>> Derren Brown: Miracle is at the Playhouse, Edinburgh until Saturday.